Hope for the Ayoreo children of Carmelo Peralta

This project was located in the Chaco Region in Carmelo Peralta, a distant city in Alto Paraguay, which is part of the Paraguayan Pantanal. The Ayoreo tribe needed a small multifunctional youth centre, a place where young people could meet on a regular basis to pass their time, to read and to exchange information, to plan how to save and to live their cultural heritage and also to get skills training for income generation.

Until very recently, the Ayoreo lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, earning their living through fishing and gathering. Having been discriminated against for many decades and having been expelled from their ancestors’ land by wealthy landowners, most Ayoreo are illiterate and cannot defend their basic rights. In order to avoid the rural exodus of young people and to preserve their environment, HOPE’87- Paraguay opted for the creation of this youth centre in Carmelo Peralta.